Prepare
Preparing for a career in a health profession involves many steps.
In addition to meeting standard academic requirements, professional schools expect a demonstration of a wide range of experiences, abilities, knowledge and skill. We have split resources into three sections—academics, experiences and timeline, as well as an additional events calendar—to help you get started.
It can be a lot to organize and locate, but our office is here to help you identify experiences that positively affect your application to a health profession school and brainstorm how to get the most out of them.
- Complete required coursework to gain necessary foundational knowledge.
- Earn high grades to illustrate you are ready for health profession school curriculum.
- Engage in broad-based curricula, in addition to demonstrating strong abilities in sciences.
- Demonstrate interest in coursework outside of your major, which could be accomplished through a minor or certificate.
- Show an appreciation of people, their behavior, their beliefs, and perspectives through studies in the social sciences, languages and cultures.
- Study for entrance exams well in advance and do your best to earn your highest marks.
- Apply quantitative reasoning and appropriate mathematics in ways outside of your coursework.
- Apply knowledge of the sciences to solve problems and formulate research questions and hypotheses.
- Effectively convey information to others verbally and in written form, which can be improved through coursework.
- Engage in patient-facing experiences, critical for you to decide if you are comfortable working with patients and develop the interpersonal skills you need as a future clinician.
- Engage in professional-facing clinical exposure, which could include shadowing healthcare professionals.
- Demonstrate a desire to help others through volunteering or engaging in service. The more divese the work, the better.
- Show an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity through a wide range of activities.
- Serve as a leader in a student organization, sports group, volunteer program, research, or other opportunity.
- While not required by many schools, research can enrich your understanding of coursework and demonstrate key competencies to schools.
- Set goals for continuous improvement and focus on learning new concepts and skills.
- Demonstrate tolerance of stressful or changing environments and how you can adapt effectively to them.
- Engage in reflective practice - keep a journal and write about your clinical and non-clinical experiences.
- Work collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals, whether that be in a student organization or research project.
Events for Pre-Health Students